Chapter V.

Leave San Francisco for Sonoma
Sonoma creek
“Bear men."
Islands in the bay
Liberality of “Uncle Sam” to sailors
Sonoma
Beautiful country
General Valléjo
Senora Valléjo
Thomas O. Larkin, U.S. Consul
Signs of rain
The seasons in California
More warlike rumours from the south
Mission of San Rafael
An Irish ranchero
Sausolito
Return to San Francisco
Meet Lippincott
Discomfort of Californian houses.

October 13.–This morning the United States frigate Congress,
Commodore Stockton, and the merchant-ship Sterling, employed to
transport the volunteers under the command of Captain Fremont (one
hundred and eighty in number), sailed for the south. The destination of
these vessels was understood to be San Pedro or San Diego. While those
vessels were leaving the harbour, accompanied by Mr. Jacob, I took
passage for Sonoma in a cutter belonging to the sloop-of-war
Portsmouth. Sonoma is situated on the northern side of the Bay of San
Francisco, about 15 miles from the shore, and about 45 miles from the
town of San Francisco. Sonoma creek is navigable for vessels of
considerable burden to within four miles of the town.

Among the passengers in the boat were Mr. Ide, who acted so conspicuous
a part in what is called the “Bear Revolution,” and Messrs. Nash and
Grigsby, who were likewise prominent in this movement. The boat was
manned by six sailors and a cockswain. We passed Yerba Buena, Bird, and
several other small islands in the bay. Some of these are white, as if
covered with snow, from the deposit upon them of bird-manure. Tens of
thousands of wild geese, ducks, gulls, and other water-fowls, were
perched upon them, or sporting in the waters of the bay, making a
prodigious cackling and clatter with their voices and wings. By the aid
of oars and sails we reached the mouth of Sonoma creek about 9 o’clock
at night, where we landed and encamped on the low marsh which borders
the bay on this side. The marshes contiguous to the Bay of San
Francisco are extensive, and with little trouble I believe they could
be reclaimed and transformed into valuable and productive rice
plantations. Having made our supper on raw salt pork and bread
generously furnished by the sailors, as soon as we landed, we spread
our blankets on the damp and rank vegetation and slept soundly until
morning.

October 14.–Wind and tide being favourable, at daylight we proceeded
up the serpentine creek, which winds through a flat and fertile plain,
sometimes marshy, at others more elevated and dry, to the
embarcadero, ten or twelve miles from the bay. We landed here between
nine and ten o’clock, A.M. All the passengers, except ourselves,
proceeded immediately to the town. By them we sent for a cart to
transport our saddles, bridles, blankets, and other baggage, which we
had brought with us. While some of the sailors were preparing
breakfast, others, with their muskets, shot wild geese, with which the
plain was covered. An excellent breakfast was prepared in a short time
by our sailor companions, of which we partook with them. No benevolent
old gentleman provides more bountifully for his servants than “Uncle
Sam.” These sailors, from the regular rations served out to them from
their ship, gave an excellent breakfast, of bread, butter, coffee, tea,
fresh beefsteaks, fried salt pork, cheese, pickles, and a variety of
other delicacies, to which we had been unaccustomed for several months,
and which cannot be obtained at present in this country. They all said
that their rations were more than ample in quantity, and excellent in
quality, and that no government was so generous in supplying its
sailors as the government of the United States. They appeared to be
happy, and contented with their condition and service, and animated
with a patriotic pride for the honour of their country, and the flag
under which they sailed. The open frankness and honest patriotism of
these single-hearted and weather-beaten tars gave a spice and flavour
to our entertainment which I shall not soon forget.

From the embarcadero we walked, under the influence of the rays of an
almost broiling sun, four miles to the town of Sonoma. The plain, which
lies between the landing and Sonoma, is timbered sparsely with
evergreen oaks. The luxuriant grass is now brown and crisp. The hills
surrounding this beautiful valley or plain are gentle, sloping, highly
picturesque, and covered to their tops with wild oats. Reaching Sonoma,
we procured lodgings in a large and half-finished adobe house, erected
by Don Salvador Valléjo, but now occupied by Mr. Griffith, an American
emigrant, originally from North Carolina. Sonoma is one of the old
mission establishments of California; but there is now scarcely a
mission building standing, most of them having fallen into shapeless
masses of mud; and a few years will prostrate the roofless walls which
are now standing. The principal houses in the place are the residences
of Gen. Don Mariano Guadaloupe Valléjo; his brother-in-law, Mr. J.P.
Leese, an American; and his brother, Don Salvador Valléjo. The quartel,
a barn-like adobe house, faces the public square. The town presents a
most dull and ruinous appearance; but the country surrounding it is
exuberantly fertile, and romantically picturesque, and Sonoma, under
American authority, and with an American population, will very soon
become a secondary commercial point, and a delightful residence. Most
of the buildings are erected around a plaza, about two hundred yards
square. The only ornaments in this square are numerous skulls and
dislocated skeletons of slaughtered beeves, with which hideous remains
the ground is strewn. Cold and warm springs gush from the hills near
the town, and supply, at all seasons, a sufficiency of water to
irrigate any required extent of ground on the plain below. I noticed
outside of the square several groves of peach and other fruit trees,
and vineyards, which were planted here by the padres; but the walls
and fences that once surrounded them are now fallen, or have been
consumed for fuel; and they are exposed to the mercies of the immense
herds of cattle which roam over and graze upon the plain.

October 15.–I do not like to trouble the reader with a frequent
reference to the myriads of fleas and other vermin which infest the
rancherias and old mission establishments in California; but, if any
sinning soul ever suffered the punishments of purgatory before leaving
its tenement of clay, those torments were endured by myself last night.
When I rose from my blankets this morning, after a sleepless night, I
do not think there was an inch square of my body that did not exhibit
the inflammation consequent upon a puncture by a flea, or some other
equally rabid and poisonous insect. Small-pox, erysipelas, measles, and
scarlet-fever combined, could not have imparted to my skin a more
inflamed and sanguineous appearance. The multitudes of these insects,
however, have been generated by Indian filthiness. They do not disturb
the inmates of those casas where cleanliness prevails.

Having letters of introduction to General Valléjo and Mr. Leese, I
delivered them this morning. General Valléjo is a native Californian,
and a gentleman of intelligence and taste far superior to most of his
countrymen. The interior of his house presented a different appearance
from any house occupied by native Californians which I have entered
since I have been in the country. Every apartment, even the main
entrance-hall and corridors, were scrupulously clean, and presented an
air of comfort which I have not elsewhere seen in California. The
parlour was furnished with handsome chairs, sofas, mirrors, and tables,
of mahogany framework, and a fine piano, the first I have seen in the
country. Several paintings and some superior engravings ornamented the
walls. Senora Valléjo is a lady of charming personal appearance, and
possesses in the highest degree that natural grace, ease, and warmth of
manner which render Spanish ladies so attractive and fascinating to the
stranger. The children, some five or six in number, were all beautiful
and interesting. General V. is, I believe, strongly desirous that the
United States shall retain and annex California. He is thoroughly
disgusted with Mexican sway, which is fast sending his country
backwards, instead of forwards, in the scale of civilization, and for
years he has been desirous of the change which has now taken place.

In the afternoon we visited the house of Mr. Leese, which is also
furnished in American style. Mr. L. is the proprietor of a vineyard in
the vicinity of the town, and we were regaled upon grapes as luscious,
I dare say, as the forbidden fruit that provoked the first
transgression. Nothing of the fruit kind can exceed the delicious
richness and flavour, of the California grape.

This evening Thomas O. Larkin, Esq., late United States Consul for
California, arrived here, having left San Francisco on the same morning
that we did, travelling by land. Mr. L. resides in Monterey, but I had
the pleasure of an introduction to him at San Francisco several days
previously to my leaving that place. Mr. L. is a native of Boston, and
has been a resident in California for about fifteen years, during which
time he has amassed a large fortune, and from the changes now taking
place he is rapidly increasing it. He will probably be the first
American millionnaire of California.

October 17.–The last two mornings have been cloudy and cool. The
rainy season, it is thought by the weather-wise in this climate, will
set in earlier this year than usual. The periodical rains ordinarily
commence about the middle of November. It is now a month earlier, and
the meteorological phenomena portend “falling weather.” The rains
during the winter, in California, are not continuous, as is generally
supposed. It sometimes rains during an entire day, without cessation,
but most generally the weather is showery, with intervals of bright
sunshine and a delightful temperature. The first rains of the year fall
usually in November, and the last about the middle of May. As soon as
the ground becomes moistened, the grass, and other hardy vegetation,
springs up, and by the middle of December the landscape is arrayed in a
robe of fresh verdure. The grasses grow through the entire winter, and
most of them mature by the first of May. The season for sowing wheat
commences as soon as the ground is sufficiently softened by moisture to
admit of ploughing, and continues until March or April.

We had made preparations this morning to visit a rancho, belonging to
General Valléjo, in company with the general and Mr. Larkin. This
rancho contains about eleven leagues of land, bordering upon a portion
of the Bay of San Francisco, twenty-five or thirty miles distant from
Sonoma. Just as we were about mounting our horses, however, a courier
arrived from San Francisco with despatches from Captain Montgomery,
addressed to Lieutenant Revere, the military commandant at this post,
giving such intelligence in regard to the insurrection at the south,
that we determined to return to San Francisco forthwith. Procuring
horses, and accompanied by Mr. Larkin, we left Sonoma about two o’clock
in the afternoon, riding at the usual California speed. After leaving
Sonoma plain we crossed a ridge of hills, and entered the fertile and
picturesque valley of Petaluma creek, which empties into the bay.
General Valléjo has an extensive rancho in this valley, upon which he
has recently erected, at great expense, a very large house.
Architecture, however, in this country is in its infancy. The money
expended in erecting this house, which presents to the eye no tasteful
architectural attractions, would, in the United States, have raised a
palace of symmetrical proportions, and adorned it with every requisite
ornament. Large herds of cattle were grazing in this valley.

From Petaluma valley we crossed a high rolling country, and reached the
mission of San Rafael (forty-five miles) between seven and eight
o’clock in the evening. San Rafael is situated two or three miles from
the shore of the bay, and commands an extensive view of the bay and its
islands. The mission buildings are generally in the same ruinous
condition I have before described. We put up at the house of a Mr.
Murphy, a scholastic Irish bachelor, who has been a resident of
California for a number of years. His casa, when we arrived, was
closed, and it was with some difficulty that we could gain admission.
When, however, the occupant of the house had ascertained, from one of
the loopholes of the building, who we were, the doors were soon
unbarred and we were admitted, but not without many sallies of Irish
wit, sometimes good-natured, and sometimes keenly caustic and ironical.
We found a table spread with cold mutton and cold beef upon it. A cup
of coffee was soon prepared by the Indian muchachos and muchachas, and
our host brought out some scheidam and aguardiénte. A draught or two
of these liquids seemed to correct the acidity of his humour, and he
entertained us with his jokes and conversation several hours.

October 18.–From San Rafael to Sausolito, opposite San Francisco on
the north side of the entrance to the bay, it is five leagues (fifteen
miles), generally over elevated hills and through deep hollows, the
ascents and descents being frequently steep and laborious to our
animals. Starting at half-past seven o’clock, we reached the residence
of Captain Richardson, the proprietor of Sausolito, about nine o’clock
in the morning. In travelling this distance we passed some temporary
houses, erected by American emigrants on the mission lands, and the
rancho of Mrs. Reed, a widow. We immediately hired a whale-boat from
one of the ships, lying here, at two dollars for each passenger, and
between ten and eleven o’clock we landed in San Francisco.

I met, soon after my arrival, Mr. Lippincott, heretofore mentioned, who
accompanied us a portion of the distance over the mountains; and Mr.
Hastings, who, with Mr. Hudspeth, conducted a party of the emigrants
from fort Bridger by the new route, via the south end of the Salt
Lake, to Mary’s River. From Mr. Lippincott I learned the particulars of
an engagement between a party of the emigrants (Captain West’s company)
and the Indians on Mary’s River, which resulted, as has before been
stated, in the death of Mr. Sallee and a dangerous arrow wound to Mr.
L. He had now, however, recovered from the effects of the wound. The
emigrants, who accompanied Messrs. Hastings and Hudspeth, or followed
their trail, had all reached the valley of the Sacramento without any
material loss or disaster.

I remained at San Francisco from the 18th to the 22d of October. The
weather during this time was sufficiently cool to render fires
necessary to comfort in the houses; but fireplaces or stoves are
luxuries which but few of the San Franciscans have any knowledge of,
except in their kitchens. This deficiency, however, will soon be
remedied. American settlers here will not build houses without
chimneys. They would as soon plan a house without a door, or with the
entrance upon its roof, in imitation of the architecture of the Pueblo
Indians of New Mexico.